


The Awakening

by gurub



Category: No Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-01-03
Packaged: 2021-03-13 12:28:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28528482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gurub/pseuds/gurub
Summary: Based on this writing prompt off of Reddit Writing Prompts: Humans once wielded formidable magical power but with over 7 billion of us on the planet now Mana has spread far to thinly to have any effect. When hostile aliens reduces humanity to a mere fraction the survivors discover an old power has begun to reawaken once again.
Kudos: 1





	The Awakening

Aeon picked up the picture frame, and examined it’s contents. He saw his parents smiling, and his sister laughing gleeful as he tossed her in the air. He remembered at the beach well, despite the nearly ten years that had passed. He heard Syl’s laugh as her teenage brother picked her up. He remembered how warm he felt, and not just because of the sun. He heard his mom telling him to be careful as he threw Syl higher and higher, until she could touch the sky. But then he heard something else. His mom warning him to be careful and finding food to pack for her children. He heard his parents ordering him to take his sister and run, while they held their kitchen knives in defense. And then he heard his sister’s sobs as the creature approached her….No. Not now. He couldn’t afford to let the memories overtake him now. It was too dangerous. He stuffed the photo frame into his backpack, and picked up his rifle to head downstairs. On his way he went into what used to be Syl’s room and packed one of her old teddy bears. He picked a green one that he remembered her running around with as a baby.

“Find everything?” asked Rafe.  
  
“Yes,” Aeon said solemnly. “Where are the others?”  
  
“Sam’s raiding the kitchen, but it doesn’t look like your parents really bought a lot of non-perishables”.  
  
“Yea mom was really anal about us eating healthy and fresh”.  
  
“The others have two minutes till they come back from raiding the neighbours,” Rafe said. Aeon checked his rifle.  
  
Two minutes later, Fred and Linda came back, but neither of their sacks were particularly full.  
  
“Slim pickings,” Fred said. “We’ve got maybe two days worth of supplies here”.  
  
“I just found two cans of Ravioli that expired a year ago,” responded Sam.  
  
“We’ll figure something out,” Aeon said. “We always do. Now let's go”. The team checked their rifles, and formed up. Aeon in front, sweeping the scene with his rifle. Linda and Sam followed, loaded up with all the supplies they found. Rafe watched the groups rear with his double barreled shotgun.  
  
They sprinted down the street to the neighbouring alley, Aeon and Rafe making sure the coast was clear. It would take them about fifteen minutes to get back to camp if they moved carefully. They could sprint it in less than four, but Aeon wasn’t about to risk losing his friends because they were impatient.  
  
They were almost back when Aeon turned a corner and immediately signalled a retreat. He slowly peered around the corner and saw one of those things standing there. It’s back was towards them, and it hadn’t noticed the noise. The others crouched and watched as Aeon slowly crept out from the wall. If it saw them, they might not make it back. He looked down the scope of his rifle to take aim. In the back of the neck, right where the creature’s spine would be. If it had a spine at least. They may look humanoid, but no one had ever managed to examine the body of one to know. He squeezed the trigger, and heard a crack from his silencer and saw the creature begin to fall and burn to ash. Aeon stood up and signalled the others that the coast was clear.  
  
“Shit that was cl-”. He immediately turned around when he heard the cracking of concrete.  
  
“Fuck,” Rafe said. One of them had jumped down from the roof and was facing the squad. Well over eleven feet, it stared down at them, as if it was curious what to do with them. It lifted it’s giant plasma covered mace. A brute. This thing wouldn’t call for help or sound a warning. It merely enjoyed the fight as an appetizer to it’s dinner. It smiled displaying its perfectly sharpened teeth in a grin so evil, it could make hell itself freeze over.  
  
“Oh how sweet your bone marrows will taste” it said in perfect English. “With so many of you, I shall not go hungry for years to come”. Nobody knew how they had learned to speak Earth’s languages. From the day they arrived, these creatures would taunt humans in their native tongues. Nor was anyone sure why they favoured human meat so much. It was more than just for food. These things would ignore other animals, even if they were easier prey. There was something about eating humans that had made these creatures travel over one billion light years to earth. And this one had just found a four course dinner.  
  
“Break!” Aeon yelled as he fired off a shot at the brute’s head. As always, it’s amour activated, and the bullet made a loud tang as it bounced off. The back of the neck, that was the only spot where these things could be taken down. Running wasn’t an option. They may be big, but Aeon had seen what happened when you tried to run. It wasn’t pretty.  
  
The four of them spread out trying to surround the creature. Linda and Rafe tried to move around to its backside, their glocks ready in their hands. Aeon and Sam switched to automatic mode and fired in bursts, hoping the brute would be confused. It roared and swung its massive mace, at Sam, who managed to roll just out of reach. Seeing an opportunity, Rafe sprinted and tried to scale the brute’s back. But it reached around with its free hand and threw Rafe at a wall with so much force that Aeon heard several loud cracks echo in the wind.  
  
“NO!” Aeon screamed as he unleashed a burst at the things head. Useless as always. Aeon felt at his belt as he rolled away from a swing of the energy mace. He picked out a grenade, and locked around to see the positions of his team. Judging everyone to be a safe distance Aeon pulled the grenade pin and lobbed it in the air at the creature’s massive bulbous head. It saw the grenade coming, and reached out in preparation to pluck it out of the air. But it didn’t see Aeon raise his rifle and fire off a round at the grenade in mid-air when it was just a few inches from the brute’s head and hand. The grenade went off with a loud bang, and the creature recoiled from the impact. Dazed and confused, the brute roared as it tried to find Aeon through the dust. Linda, who the alien had all but forgotten, saw her opening. She ran towards it and scaled its back. The adrenaline over taking her, she didn’t even bother with her gun. She pulled out her hunters knife, and stabbed right into the neck, and viciously tore through it’s flesh. It roared one last time as she jumped off, falling to the ground and turning to ash just like the one before it.  
  
The team sprinted over to Rafe and who lay in a clump on the ground. Aeon saw blood spattered around his friend, but miraculously he was breathing. In fact, when Aeon got close, Rafe managed to sit up.  
  
“That throw should have broken every bone in your body,” Sam remarked.  
  
“I think it might have,” Rafe replied, while also managing to stand up.  
  
“We can’t stop and talk about this now. Can you walk?” Aeon asked. Rafe nodded. “Okay let’s go before another one of them shows up”. The four of them gathered their supplies and weapons, and sprinted back to camp.

\---

When they were safely underground and in their bunker, Rafe showed his wounds to the team. Or rather, the lack thereof. There was dried blood on parts of his body, but otherwise he looked as healthy as ever.  
  
“Remarkable,” said Sam. “I’ve never seen it work to this extent before”. The it that Sam was referring to was humanity’s seemingly new found ability to heal. In the last decade, wounds and injuries seemed to matter less and less. It started small and nobody was really as to the actual timing of things. But a few years after the aliens had arrived, people started to notice that sickness was slowly disappearing. Nobody could remember the last time someone had experienced a cough. After that cuts and bruises would disappear in mere hours. Last year Aeon had broken an arm on a provision run, and woke up the next morning to find the bones fully intact. It was as if the presence of aliens gave humans the ability to heal. _Fuck that idea,_ Aeon thought. If they were healing humans it was probably just to preserve their meals.  
  
“If this were fifteen years ago, you’d be in paralzyed in a hospital bed for months,” Linda said.  
  
“Well I’m sure you’re not complaining,” Rafe said as he winked at her. Ugh. Aeon was happy that the two of them found each other, but did they really have to put on such displays in front of everyone else?  
  
“Whatever is causing this, it's getting stronger, and impacting us more,” Aeon said. They had all seen the effects. The elderly among them moved as if they were thirty years younger. Trauma deaths were becoming less and less frequent. As long as they had food, most people only died when they ventured outside. _Maybe one day it will make us stronger than those bastards_ , hoped Aeon.  
  
“Who knows maybe one day it’ll cure Sam’s limp dick,” Rafe said.  
  
“F--,” Sam was cut off as just then the door opened and a small voice said “Aeon!”  
  
“Vin!” Aeon exclaimed as he turned to pick up the little girl. She hugged him tightly and he felt his tension from the previous run melt away.  
  
“I was so worried. Did you get me anything?” she asked. Aeon nodded and pulled out the green teddy bear from his backpack. After he brushed the dust off the thing Vin grabbed the bear excitedly from his hands. “It’s so cute!” Aeon smiled at her as she hugged the bear.  
  
“I’m gonna go get us something to eat,” he told the others as he grabbed Vin’s hand.

\----

A smiling Vin slept cradled in Aeon’s arms, clutching the bear. Aeon wasn’t sure who her parents were. He’d found her on a provision raid nearly three years earlier. He heard a scream, and ran to find her parents dead in a living room. The ash on the ground told Aeon that they had managed to kill the alien that had invaded their home. Vin was crying in the next room. He picked her up and brought her back to the camp. Ever since then, they’d been together. He took care of her, and she unknowingly took care of him. She gave him a reason to wake up, and to go on those raids. She gave him a reason live on after... what he’d lost. Aeon picked her up and tucker her into bed. Before he left he kissed her forehead and whispered “be safe,” as he had done every night since they met.  
  
Aeon wasn’t ready for bed, so he left to wander the camp. Camp was a bit of a generous term for their underground silo. The invaders hated being underground, it was the only way humanity had managed to survive. Those who weren’t killed on the initial onslaught dug and dug, until they had built this sanctuary. Aeon had arrived seven years ago, picked up by a raiding party. It had taken him awhile, but he eventually managed to think of this place as home, even though he longed for the ability to relax under the warm sun. This complex housed a few thousand people. Nobody was sure if there were any others, or had any remote estimate as to how much of the human population was left. As far as Aeon knew, the entire world was here.  
  
The first thing Aeon encountered on his walk was those bastard preachers. After humanity had started to display its newfound healing abilities, those fuckers had started to preach that the aliens were some sort of Angels, sent down by god to judge humanity, and those that had survived had been the worthy ones. Fuck that. Any god that had deemed Aeon worthy and Syl not could stick a cross up its ass.  
  
“Dipshits,” Aeon said loudly as he passed by the preachers spewing their bullshit. He kept walking until he came to an underground tavern and sat down for a drink. At least there was still alcohol in the world. Aeon pulled out the picture frame and ordered some liquor. He wasn’t quite sure how or when he got back to his bunker, but the picture frame had droplet stains on it.

\---

He woke to the alarm. _No, fuck, this can’t be happening. It wasn’t a drill, there was no warning._  
  
There was a sudden pounding on his door followed by Sam’s voice yelling “AEON GET THE FUCK UP, WE NEED TO GO”.  
  
The noise had woken Vin too. She may have been a child, but she knew the danger they were in. They quickly picked up their emergency bags, and Aeon grabbed his rifle.  
  
“Status report,” Aeon said as he opened his door.  
  
“They’re here. Nobody knows how, but they found us. They’re using some kind of drilling machines to collapse the tunnels from the outside,” Rafe said. They were going to bury the humans and eat the corpses.  
  
“The closest emergency exit is five hundred meters. Let’s go,” Aeon said. Linda and Sam were waiting for them. They formed up with Sam carrying Vin in the middle. Aeon and his crew were the only ones in this wing, so the hallway was empty. As they ran down the hall, he heard creaks above him. The tunnel was starting to strain.  
  
“There!” he exclaimed as he saw the exit door. They increased their speed to a full sprint. Aeon fumbled with the lock, and pushed the door open. He started to run outside---suddenly he was flying through the air, his ribs in searing pain.  
  
He landed with a thud, and looked back at the doorway. No. There were five of the monsters waiting for them, two of them hulking brutes like the one they’d seen earlier. The pain in his ribs started to subside as he felt his bones start to heal. As he stood up he saw the brutes throw the rest of his team around. Vin was ripped from Sam’s arms and launched nearly ten feet in the air.  
  
“NO!” Aeon screamed.  
  
“We shall eat the little one first” one of the aliens taunted. Aeon had to save her. He ran toward the thing that spoke and pulled his knife out of his belt. He tried to stab it, but it turned and simply let its armor deflect the blow. It shoved Aeon. He went scrambling, but thankfully he was lying between them and Vin. He stood, and held his knife out, ready for the fight. Around the creatures he saw his companions rise, everyone one of them ready to fight.  
  
The alien that had spoken laughed. “You show much heart human, we shall enjoy you last”.  
  
“Go fuck yourself” Aeon said as he charged at it. Sam, Linda, and Rafe each charged at one in unison with him. They all knew that there wasn’t much hope, but hopefully they could somehow give Vin the chance to escape. Vin was all that mattered. Aeon punched the alien in the face, and it didn’t move it’s head. He hailed the alien with punches and stabs, but nothing would affect it. It started to laugh, in the unsettling manner its kind did.  
  
“Your kind. So primitive. You have no idea what you truly are,” it said as it casually picked Aeon up by the throat with one hand. “Your species never deserved the gifts bestowed upon it” it said with utter disgust. It spat in Aeon’s face and threw him to the ground. The others did the same with his friends.  
  
“You shall be punished for what you squandered”. Aeon felt a sharp pain go throw his back. The alien had struck an energy laced spear right through his stomach into the ground. He struggled to move, but the spear had him pinned. Even as his body tried to heal, it couldn’t help when the spear was still inside him. The screams he heard told him that his companions had experienced the same punishment.  
Except for Vin. One of the aliens had managed to grab her, and was holding her up for the others. They walked towards her, with hunger clear in their eyes. Aeon tried to get up, but he could do nothing. He saw her look at him, terror in her eyes. She started to scream.  
  
_No, please_ he thought as he reached out to her. _Please not again. It can’t happen again._ Suddenly it wasn’t Vin there anymore, it was Syl. She was crawling backward as an alien approached her. She cried for help, asking Aeon to help her as he struggled to move. There was a spear inside her and her eyes grew dark. The monster before him started to consume her. Aeon couldn’t remember what happened after that, only that when he woke he was completely alone.  
  
_Please it can’t happen again. I can’t go through this again._ Tears started to roll down his face as he willed himself toward her, but it was no use. _I’ll do anything, please god just save her._ And suddenly, he felt it. He wasn’t sure exactly what. It was as if a stream was flowing into him, but he wasn’t sure what the stream contained. He felt it flowing to his wounds, as if the stream was trying to heal him. But the stream was merely a small taste. Beyond it was..an ocean. Vast and immense Aeon could feel its power with every fiber of his being. It called to him and he reached out to it. It willingly reached back, and he felt the stream expand infinitely.  
  
The spear burst from his back, and fire erupted from his hand. It shot forward with the same ferocity that Aeon felt in his heart. Aeon saw the aliens barely have time to turn as it consumed the four walking towards Vin. They started to scream in anguish as they disintegrated. The one holding Vin only had a moment to be stunned. Aeon didn’t know what he was doing, but his body did. He willed the ground underneath the alien to open, and it did. Vin was dropped to the ground as the creature disappeared. Aeon told the spears to pull themselves out of his friends' backs, and they did. He ran to Vin and held her tight as she sobbed into his shoulder.  
  
“What in the hell was that?!” exclaimed Rafe as they ran over to him. Aeon opened his mouth, but stopped when he felt the rumbling. They looked up and saw an entire armada of aliens marching toward them. Hundreds of thousands of them, marching toward the five humans standing alone. Aeon thought he should be scared, but instead he smiled.  
  
“It’s how we win,” Aeon said as he reached into the ocean and produced a ball of fire in the palm of his hand.


End file.
